How to Start a Successful Blog and Make it Your Main Source of Income

This is a guest post by Mark Thomson. He is a content creator, digital marketer, and blogger. In this post-Mark teaches how to make blog income as a professional blogger.

I have been in the digital marketing business long enough to know that writing can be more than just a hobby. It can be a source of sustainable income. From copywriting and content marketing to article writing and blogging – anyone can earn as low as $5 or as much as $50 per writing task. (If you want more ideas regarding earnings from online/freelance writing, read here.)

Now, that’s just for starters. How about earning around $500,000 to $2 million annually from your blog? Sounds good, right?

You have True Valhalla, a video game website that earns around $500,000 from his blog in a year. Smart Passive Income is another blog that makes a huge amount of money–over $2 million last year.

These are just a few examples of money-making blog sites that can inspire you to follow their tracks as you set out to make blog income.

But before you get too excited at earning the same amount as True Valhalla or Smart Passive Income, here’s a quick disclaimer: This is not some quick-get-rich shams. Like every successful project out there, having a blog that earns thousands of dollars require time and effort.

Just because you’ve set up a blog and posted one article does not mean that you will be raking in money instantly. Be prepared to really work hard before your blog converts to a profitable source of income.

You don’t have to worry or feel overwhelmed though. Being in the business for quite some time has given me enough credibility to share with you some guidelines on blogging and making it a successful one. Hope the list below helps a great deal:

1. Get your own domain and hosting: the first step to make blog income.

Okay, so you already have a blog. Let’s do a quick assessment. Read our article on how to setup Self-Hosted WordPress to establish the foundation for a money-making blog.

What’s your domain name?

Do you have a web hosting?

For blog rookies, these terms may sound confusing and appear intimidating. I will try my best to explain these two in the simplest way possible.

Domain name is your blog’s address online. It is the web address that you type on your browser’s address bar. In Dear Blogger’s case, its domain name is www.dearblogger.org.

Similar to physical addresses, a domain name signifies the specific location on the internet where your blog is at.

On the other hand, web hosting pertains to a space on the internet that contains all of your website files. Simply put, it is a storage space where all your web files are housed in. For more information on the difference between the two, you can read up here.

So why are domain names and website hosting important?

If you are aiming to earn money from your blog, you have to ensure that you are doing a professional job out of it. Having a domain name makes it easier for people to remember your blog, while a website hosting ensures that you have enough space to build your blog with.

Getting a domain name and website hosting requires purchases, but such investments will provide you benefits in the long run. The important thing is you gear up your blog to be a professional one.

If you want to know more about turning your blog brand into something more professional, click here.

2. Provide content with value.

Once you have professionally set up your blog in terms of domain name and hosting, and you might have also considered polishing the overall look of your blog, your next concern would be the content.

Yes, this is where all the writing comes in.

And no, it is not all about writing blog posts. Basic blog posts are great, but the ones about our thoughts during lunch aren’t that useful to make blog income. You have to be more strategic.

The term content has now come to include photos, infographics, tweets, Facebook posts, links and audiovisuals among many others.

So, providing content for your blog may mean writing several articles for you to publish on your blog, but it also means sharing related articles, posting photos or videos, and even linking to video game website or mobile apps (or any other site for that matter as long as it is related to your main content).

Content creation and development should always be on brand and reflect the core message that you want to convey to your readers, regardless of the form and type of content you are going to publish.

You also have to keep in mind that your content plays a significant contribution to whether your audience will keep visiting your blog or otherwise. In fact, it comprises the bulk of consideration, especially if the audience looks for quality and value of content. If your content stinks (tough to say, we know) you can market it as much as you want and it still won’t help you make blog income. Once the audience no longer finds value in the content you release, your blog may find itself losing readership.

How do you prevent that from happening? In a Hubspot article focused writing guidelines for blog posts, it suggests creating buyer personas to enable you to understand who you are creating content for. This technique allows you to identify topics that will resonate with them. Read more of their tips here.

If you want to liven your blog with images, infographics, charts, and e-cards, you can always rely on Canva. I have personally turned to Canva for easy-to-do and user-friendly graphics. They provide templates for different types of content for different channels. Expect to have eye-catching designs and layouts for a Facebook post, web banner, newsletter, YouTube cover, and many more! All you have to do is be experimental and playful enough with their tools.

Meanwhile, Animoto can be your go-to software for producing videos that you can easily market your own platforms, whether that be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or WordPress. It allows you basic video editing features.

Okay, so you have a blog. Perhaps you’ve published several articles and released some videos. Your blog visitor count may be picking up, with a significant number of repeat visitors. Now, that’s good. It means your content is clicking with your audience.

The next challenge would be to sustain a relationship with your audience. From being simply a reader, you want them to patronize your brand and your product or service; and share with their network your brand.

From audience and reader, they are converted to consumers. This should be one of your goals as you think of your content.

Develop and produce content that will stick with them, and enable them to jump over the gap and become your brand’s consumer.

4. Look for ways to monetize your blog.

Once you have gained traction in terms of consumers, you can begin monetizing your blog. There are several ways to earn from your blog, and below are a few examples:

Advertisements

One of the most popular ways of earning from your blog is through ad spaces. From the traditional banner ad space, you can push for other corners and tools in your blog as ad spaces. These can include your pop-up box, social media corner, a dedicated image or post, or whatever space you want to sell.

Another option for ads would be to join Google’s AdSense program, where you can simply add a code to your blog that will show an advertisement. Watch our video on how to get accepted into Google Adsense to and begin to make blog income the old-fashioned way. Once a blog visitor clicks on that ad, you will get paid.

Publish Sponsored Posts to earn blog income

This is similar to advertisements but instead of hosting an image/ad of a brand, you write a special, dedicated blog post that is aligned with a paying company or brand. Your blog becomes a platform for that company or brand to reach a wider market through your audience. Keep in mind to disclose to your readers the sponsored nature of the post!

Offer services to generate blog income

While this may be one of the more obvious ways to earn money, this is a great way to market your skills, build your network, and establish a reputation. You can offer services that are relevant to the brand of your blog.

If your blog is about writing, then you can offer editing and proofreading services or market your own network of coursework writers to help students and other professionals in need of some writing help. If your blog is all about IT-related topics, you can offer systems management, and web development services.

Build a business directory to make blog income

In instances when your audience or consumers ask for your recommendations on certain products and services, not only would product reviews be helpful, but having an actual directory of reliable businesses and brands is way better.

What you can do is identify the products and services your audience mostly looks for. Ask interested brands and businesses to sign up in your business directory. This directory may have a special tab on your homepage so your audience can easily access it. In this case, a usiness directory plugin would get the ball rolling for you.

Now that you have an overview, get your mind working and your hands typing to kick-start your blogging success!

A founder of assignmentmasters.org writing group and guest blogger, Mark Thomson has delved into topics such as internet marketing, self-development, and education. Mark has helped build several websites through content creation. He has contributed to its success through digital marketing over the years. He has been in the digital marketing business for 5 years (and counting).

This is an awesome post. So true what you say here about all that is involved today regarding blog content. Readers expect more than just blog posts and the use of social media and videos enable us to expand our reach. I’ve never tried the business directory plugin. I’ll have to check it out! 😀

About DearBlogger

DearBlogger is a free WordPress resource and community geared towards providing you free and fast advice to build a better blog. DearBlogger was founded in September 2012 in Manhattan by Greg Narayan. Our mission on this site is to provide clearer answers than what's out there currently, and make blogging, advertising, online marketing, web design, eCommerce, and any kind of website creation mainly using WordPress easier for beginners.